[Calling all motherboard experts]Best Motherboard for the ultimate build- GTX 980ti and i7 4790k?

[5384vishal]

Ok I have Selected three brands and selected boards which I think are good enough with the GTX 980ti and i7 4790k....

ASUS
Asus Z97-PRO
Asus Maximus VII Ranger
Asus Maximus VII Hero

GIGABYTE
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Soc


ASRock
ASRock Z97X Killer

Criteria:
Most important :Should not have Realtek audio card
and Can be overclocked easily

Information needed:
1)I am inclined towards Asus Maximus VII Ranger.Will it be able to take the two beasts?
2)How different are the boards among the others of the same brand ie. differences between the cards of same brands.

Calling all motherboard experts!!!!!!!

 

[martinch]

Most important :Should not have Realtek audio card

The ASUS Z97-Pro has a RealTek audio device on it (ALC1150), although mine works without problem, and sounds fine - better than the old SoundBlaster Audigy 2 in my old PC. The ASUS Maximus boards' SupremeFX Audio is a variant of the same RealTek ALC1150.

Can be overclocked easily

The ASUS boards have really nice overclocking features. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J81qFsUbROE

Sorry, can't comment on the other boards/questions.

 

[Dunlop0078]

I would go for the MSI Z97 GAMING 5. The ASUS ROG boards are overkill and not worth the money in my opinion.

 

[5384vishal]

I would go for the MSI Z97 GAMING 5. The ASUS ROG boards are overkill and not worth the money in my opinion.

MSI makes the worst boards already suffered alot.Wont repeat the same mistake again.

 

[Dunlop0078]

I would go for the MSI Z97 GAMING 5. The ASUS ROG boards are overkill and not worth the money in my opinion.

MSI makes the worst boards already suffered alot.Wont repeat the same mistake again.

Lol. I would strongly beg to differ maybe many years ago not anymore they make some of the best.

 

[Dunlop0078]

But if your really that biased towards msi. I would probably go with the asus Z97A or Z97PRO. If you have no particular reason to buy a ROG board other than the fact it looks cool then its a waste of money for you.

 

[5384vishal]

But if your really that biased towards msi. I would probably go with the asus Z97A or Z97PRO. If you have no particular reason to buy a ROG board other than the fact it looks cool then its a waste of money for you.

How one is better than other technically?

 

[Dunlop0078]

But if your really that biased towards msi. I would probably go with the asus Z97A or Z97PRO. If you have no particular reason to buy a ROG board other than the fact it looks cool then its a waste of money for you.

How one is better than other technically?

Chokes, how long the capacitors are rated for, the amount of power phases, sound card quality, SLI support, size of chipset and vrm heatsinks but more than anything software features like more extensive power control, fan control, auto overclocking. An asus ROG board would be good for like 3 way sli and a watercooled heavily overcloked cpu but even then i bet the difference between a rog and say z97a even with 3 way sli and a heavy overclok would be minimal at best due to pretty much all the things that the motherboard use to do being moved onto the cpu. Years ago a high end mobo may have gotten you a good performance increase nowadays not so much.

 

[Dunlop0078]

So my point is it really doesn't matter as long as its a z97 board coming from a good well known company and has proper VRM cooling its probably going to perform just as well as any other z97 board.

Here is an overview of the cheaper z97 boards if your interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnpASmjWPB0

 

[martinch]

But if your really that biased towards msi. I would probably go with the asus Z97A or Z97PRO. If you have no particular reason to buy a ROG board other than the fact it looks cool then its a waste of money for you.

How one is better than other technically?

Z97-A has the RealTek ALC892, and the PRO has the ALC1150, which is supposed to be better (the ROG's have an upgraded and more isolated ALC1150). The PRO has more power phases than the A and 2 extra SATA ports but lacks PCI slots, but the ROGs have higher-quality VRMs (the VRMs don't actually need a heatsink, according to Asus' JJ), and capacitors are rated to 10k hours instead of 5k hours, IIRC. The ROGs are more tuned for overclocking (i.e. the BIOS leans towards OC'ing), and they have some interesting bells-and-whistles (KeyBot hardware macros).

Performance-wise, most Z97 boards perform similarly, due to the CPU architecture (i.e. the CPU's integrated VRM removes a fair bit of variance).